may be seen trunks of trees which shaded the bower of fair Rosamond, and which it is supposed are not less than a thousand years old. At Hartford, in Connecticut, is the Charter-oak, which was a hollow tree in the days of James II., nearly two hundred years ago. In the hollow of this tree was concealed the charter of the state, when the King of England, through his agents, attempted to deprive the colonists of that guarantee of their civil rights. This oak must, even at that period, have been an aged tree.

Economical uses of various Plants.

We perceive among the various species of vegetable beings, some which seem destined only to beautify and enliven the earth; others, with little or no beauty, are valuable only for their utility; and in some instances we find utility and beauty united; roses, lilies, tulips, carnations, and most of the green-house and garden plants, belong to the first-mentioned class. Trees are not only beautiful, but many of them are highly useful, affording fuel, shelter, and shade, nuts, berries, and other fruits; their bark is used in tanning, for medicine, and spices; and their sap and secretions furnish sugar and various medicinal extracts.

Trees, with respect to their wood, may be divided, 1st, into such as have hard wood, as the oak, elm, apple, &c.; 2d, such as have soft wood, as the poplar and willow; 3d, such as have resinous wood, as the pine and fir; 4th, such as are evergreens, but not resinous, as the evergreen oak of the south of Europe.

Hard wood is considered best for fuel; as it contains the greatest quantity of carbon, it causes a more intense and permanent heat; resinous wood containing more hydrogen, burns with a more brilliant flame.

The fermented juice of the grape produces wine. Grain of different kinds produce gin, whiskey, &c. Apples, by their fermentation, produce cider; this liquor, concentrated by distillation, produces brandy and alcohol. The vineyards of Italy and France, and of some of the Atlantic islands, are the most celebrated for their wine. In America, the vine does not flourish in the same luxuriance as upon the eastern continent.

Grasses are the palms of cold climates; they are of the class of monocotyledons, and have endogenous stems. Some are perennial, some annual; the meadow grasses are of the former kind. The grains, Indian corn, and rice, are annual. There are certain grasses which are called artificial, because they do not spring up without cultivation; of this kind is clover. Gramineous plants, although very important, as furnishing from their leaves food for cattle, are yet more especially useful for their seeds, which furnish food for man. Some plants furnish oils, which are of important uses in various ways. Of the fixed and volatile oils we have already spoken. The fixed oils are extracted from plants called oleaginous; they may be considered under three heads: 1st, olive-oil, produced from the olive in warm countries; 2d, nut-oil, of temperate climates, as obtained from walnuts, &c.; 3d, oil obtained from the seed of oleaginous, or oily plants, as the flax.

Tuberous roots, as the turnip, potato, carrot, beet, parsnip, &c., furnish important articles of food.

Asparagus, when young, is esteemed a luxury; the rhubarb plant is used in making pies; celery, onions, and even garlic, are esteemCharter-oak-Plants which are chiefly valuable for beauty-For utility-Division of trees with respect to wood-Liquors produced from plants-Grasses-Oleaginous plants-Tuberous roots-Asparagus, &c.

ed valuable for food and seasoning. Many of the labiate plants, as thyme, sage, &c., are used in cookery. The Cruciform family afford the cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, &c.; the Leguminous family, beans, peas, &c.

The Cucurbitaceæ furnish us with melons, squashes, and cucumbers; umbelliferous plants, with the aromatics, caraway, coriander, &c., which are useful in medicine and confectionary.

The plants chiefly used in domestic economy differ in different climates and countries; some, as many kinds of grain and grasses, are in common use in all countries; while others, as the bread-fruit and plantain, are only used in the few countries which produce them. The bread-corn of the temperate climates, is chiefly wheat, rice, and maize; rice is a substitute for these in warm countries, and barley in cold countries.

The esculent roots of the old world, are chiefly the yam, carrot, and turnip; of the new, the potato.

The pot-herbs, such as the cabbage, sea-kale, and others of the cruciform family, are used in temperate climates; in hot climates they are little used. Legumes furnish an important article of food in most parts of the old world, and in North America.

LECTURE LII.

HISTORY OF BOTANY, FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD, TO THE REVIVAL OF LETTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLEMAGNE, A. d. 770.

We now propose to give a brief sketch of the progress of botanical knowledge; and as this is closely connected with other branches of natural science, a history of the advancement of the one will necessarily be, in some degree, a record of the march of the others. Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and Botany, were all nursed in the same cradle, and thus grew and gained strength side by side; though Botany (at first rude and imperfect) may be considered the elder sister.

After becoming familiar with a science, the mind naturally seeks for information respecting its origin, and the progress by which it advanced from the first rude conceptions which might have been formed, to its gradual development and comparative perfection. The history of the progress of a science makes a part of the science itself; we are interested in the various efforts of philosophers, their experience and observations, and the trains of reasoning by which they arrived at those conclusions which constitute the basis of the science.

In Botany, as in the other sciences, physical wants were the first guides; man at first sought to find in vegetables, food, then remedies for diseases, and lastly, amusement and instruction.

The first account of plants may be traced to the history of the creation by Moses. It was on the third day of this great work that God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth and it was so; and the earth brought forth grass, and the herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit,

Melons-Umbelliferous plants-Bread-corn-Pot-herbs-Legumes-History of botanical science-Why do we wish to learn the progress of science?-First account of plants traced to the history of the creation.

whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good." After this, it is recorded that God gave to Adam every herb and every tree bearing fruit; the latter was for him exclusively, but to the beasts of the earth, and the fowls of the air, and to every thing wherein there is life, he also gave the green herb for meat.

It is recorded that Adam gave names to all the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air; and Milton imagines, that to Eve was assigned the pleasant task of giving names to flowers, and numbering the tribes of plants. When our first parents, as a punishment for their disobedience, are about to leave their delightful Eden, Eve, in the language of the poet, with bitter regret, exclaims:

The Bible, and the poems of Homer, afford us the only vestiges of the botanical knowledge of the earliest ages of the world. Great advantages were afforded to the Jews for obtaining a knowledge of plants, in their long wanderings over the face of the earth, before they settled in Judea. When in possession of this fertile country, they extended their intercourse with foreign nations; the vessels of Solomon frequented the shores of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the East Indian islands. In the Book of Kings it is said, "God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding above all the children of the East country, and all the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men. He spake proverbs and songs; he also spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop, that springeth out of the wall; and people from all countries came to hear his wisdom."

The Magi, or "wise men of the East," cultivated the sciences to a great extent; but they kept their discoveries in mysterious concealment, in order the better to tyrannize over the minds of the people. Their researches were in a great measure lost to the world. Greece, however, received from Asia and Egypt the first elements of knowledge.

The philosophers of Greece, too eager to learn nature at one glance, were not satisfied with the slow process of observation and experiment, and to ascend from particular facts to general principles; but they believed themselves able, by the force of their own genius, to build up systems which would explain all phenomena; supposing that man had in his mind preconceived ideas of what nature ought to be. This error in the philosophy of the ancients for a long time obstructed the progress of all science; and it was not until laying aside this false notion, and admitting that the only sure method of learning nature is to study her works, that the labours of philosophers began to be followed by important discoveries The greater part of the ancient Greek philosophers asserted, that plants were organized like animals, that they possessed sensible and rational souls capable of desires and fears, pleasure and pain. Pythagoras of Samos, who travelled in Egypt, and was there instructed by the priests of the goddess Isis, is said by Pliny to have been

Milton imagines that Eve gave names to the plants, and numbered their tribesWhat is known of the progress of botany during the earliest ages of the world-Solomon is said to have spoken of trees and other plants-The Magi-Philosophers of Greece Pythagoras.

the first of the Greek writers who composed a treatise on the properties of plants. A disciple of his, Empedocles, seemed to have some correct ideas of vegetable physiology. He called the seeds the eggs of plants; the roots, their heads and mouths; and considered that the two sexes were combined in the same individual.

Several men of the name of Hippocrates wrote upon the medicinal properties of plants; but their descriptions, being destitute of system, are vague, and cannot be applied to plants with any degree of certainty.

Aristotle, perceiving that the course taken by preceding philosophers had not conducted them to the true knowledge of things, partially renounced their false ideas, and rested more upon observation and experience.) In his researches, he was favoured by Alexander, of whom he had been the preceptor. That conqueror, in the midst of pride, and the fury of passion, still possessed the love of true glory, and a desire that his conquests might serve to promote the improvement of the human mind; he allowed to Aristotle, in the prosecution of his scientific inquiries, every facility that wealth and power could bestow.

Aristotle believed, that in nature there was a regular progress from inorganized matter upwards to man, and from man upwards to the Deity; that beings were connected together by certain affinities, composing an immense chain, of which the links were all connected. But,

"Lives the man whose universal eye

Has swept at once the unbounded scheme of things?
Has any seen

The mighty chain of beings, lessening down
From infinite perfection, to the brink

Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss?"

This idea of a regular chain of beings, presenting itself with such grandeur and simplicity, has had many admirers; but facts do not seem to correspond with this theory. In the vegetable kingdom we should find it impossible to trace a regular gradation from the oak to a moss (if we were to make these the extremes of the chain of vegetable substances,) and say exactly in what part of the scale each family of plants should be placed; it would rather seem, in many cases, as if the links of the chain had been broken or disunited.

Aristotle considered plants as intermediate between inorganized matter and animals. Plants, he said, are not distinguished from animals in being destitute of the seat of life, the heart; because of this the reptiles and inferior orders of animals are also destitute; but plants have no consciousness of themselves, or organs of sense to know what is out of themselves; animals possess these faculties; therefore, Aristotle says, they are different. We think it would have been difficult for him to have discovered any evidence of consciousness in the sponge, or any marks by which it might appear that this animal substance (for such it is thought to be) has the knowledge of any thing external to itself. However great may be the veneration entertained for the opinions of Aristotle, we believe his distinction between plants and animals will at this time find no supporters. This philosopher published his works on natural history about 384 years before Christ.

Theophrastus, the friend and pupil of Aristotle, published a great number of learned works; among others "A History of Plants," and "The Causes of Vegetation." He treated separately of aquatic Empedocles-Hippocrates-Aristotle-Various opinions of Aristotle-Theophrastus.

plants, of parasites, of culinary herbs, and of flowering plants; he remarked upon the uses of each plant, the place where it grew, and whether it was woody or herbaceous. He had no idea of genera or species; his names were merely local, and his descriptions generally indefinite. His views upon the physiology of plants, were superior to his descriptions of them; he remarked upon their different external organs; distinguished the seed lobes (Cotyledons) from the leaves; gave just ideas upon their functions, and upon the offices of the root. He explained their anatomy as well as possible without the assistance of the microscope, which (as the science of optics was then unknown) had not been invented. Theophrastus seemed too much inclined to compare the structure of vegetables to that of animals; imagining that he found in plants, bones, veins, and arteries. A shrub which grows in the Antilles is named Theophrasta, in honour of this ancient botanist.

Dioscorides, a physician of Greek extraction, about the commencement of the Christian era, travelled over Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy, in order to observe the plants of those countries; his works were written in Greek; he divided plants into four classes, viz.: 1st, aromatic, 2d, vinous, 3d, medicinal, and 4th, alimentary, or nutritious. The labours of this botanist were of little value in after times, on account of want of method in his descriptions. He gave the names and properties of 600 plants; but having no idea of species or genera, his work was but a chaos of facts, which were so imperfectly expressed, as to render it impossible to apply them to use.

The elder Pliny, who lived in the reign of Nero, treated of the history of plants, but he neglected nature, and derived his science from the works of his predecessors. False systems of philosophy seemed to fetter the noblest minds, and prevent their pursuing those methods of investigation which would have led to a true knowledge of nature. The genius of Pliny was vast and active; he consecrated to scientific researches and literary works, the leisure which public duties left him. His "History of the World," which was a compilation of all the knowledge of the ancients, upon the subject of natural history, the only one of his writings which has escaped the ravages of time and barbarians, is but a small portion of his labours. He is considered faulty in recording both truth and error, often transmitting them without observation or criticism, and sometimes favouring absurd traditions; but his work is justly admired for the greatness of its plan, which embraced the whole of nature, for the elegance of its style, and for the wonderful art with which the highest considerations of practical philosophy are associated with natural history. In the year 79 after Christ, Pliny fell a sacrifice to his desire of knowledge, in an eruption of Mount Vesuvius ; wishing to contemplate as near as possible so sublime a spectacle, he perished, suffocated by the sulphureous exhalations.

Galen, in the second century, wrote upon the medicinal qualities of plants, but gave no descriptions. The love of the sciences seemed, in the prosperous days of Rome, to be extinguished; "Mistress of the world," corrupted by victories, and by tyrants, she had abandoned herself to luxury. The false philosophy of the vanquished Greeks reigned in the schools of victorious Rome, chasing away every trace of true knowledge. Religious fanaticism had also its

Dioscorides-Pliny-Galen-Condition of science in the most prosperous days of

Rome.